Bad web2.0 updater, better developer… sort of

So I epically failed to keep to my one update per day strategy. Anyway some things have been happening.

Firstly I was running out of my ABS reel but have loads of PLA so thought hat I should start with that. So now all my parts are coming out looking like brittle shards of glass :-S but otherwise PLA is fine to work with.

I’ve also been making a few decisions with regards to the design. Alas these mostly involve reducing degrees of freedom, as well as more lifelike aspects such as knuckle positioning etc. But I do need to get things moving, and by simplifying I can save some headaches… until version 2 anyway.

I caved in and bought a vacuum system a few days ago. I’d planned on not doing so since my molds are all pretty simple and shallow, and so I’d hoped that bubbles in the epoxy or the silicone would float out before they cured. It turns out that this wasn’t working well in the epoxy parts. Small bubbles would get trapped to the surface of the mold and the resulting epoxy parts would look fine except for the occasional pit. Anyway that looked unprofessional and probably weakened the part, so they had to go.

Speaking of the epoxy parts, I’ve been playing around with some black and white pigments, which at the least will remove the pale orange colour of the epoxy. I’ve also been playing with copper and aluminium powder, which I’ve been cold casting. I’m hoping that in future I can make some steam-punk inspired designs! Actually I want to offer lots of custom design options in future.

So far I haven’t gotten any pics of the above. However I do have some pics of the partial hand design, that I will upload.

The side on image shows the wafers that will contain the top PCB (for processing of signals and communication), and the bottom PCB (for sensors etc). The idea is that these boards can be blank, but can be processed using PCB making techniques, and custom electronics can be soldered on. All I want to do is make a flexible standard that can be modded by anyone interested.

Anyway, I’ll get some more pictures up soon. I also plan on running some tests for attaching the tendons.